Once again, placing an order with Amazon became so frustrating I quit. This time after spending twenty minutes convincing the software to accept all my updates (all of which have to be entered individually) the program suddenly decided to cancel out all of the changes I had made and revert back to where I had started.
The last time I ordered a book, I entered my order for a used copy of a book and the software decided to order a new copy for me instead. Tripled the cost of my order. I’d suspect it was a sinister plot but the more frequent occurance is that I don’t order anything because of the errors, so I don’t suspect Amazon is making money from creative programming errors.
Amazon didn’t used to be like this. Their software worked. But sometime last year, their Shopping Cart software suddenly developed a whole range of bugs.
I placed an order with Amazon two days ago and had no problems. I routinely order stuff from amazon.com and amazon.co.uk and have never had any problems with their shopping cart. (I find the fact that I sometimes have to put an item into my cart to see the price a bit annoying but that’s by design, not a problem with the software.)
I agree with friedo; what system setup are you using?
For all I know of computers it could actually involve magic pixie dust. But if I understand the question correctly, I’m using Netscape 7.0 and Windows XP.
I also realize I should explain my situation a little better. I accumulate books in my shopping cart. Whenever I see a book (or movie or cd) I’m interested in, I put it in my cart so I’ll remember it later. Then every few weeks when I have some extra cash, I place an order. To do this, I move all the stuff I don’t want to buy at the moment into the “buy later” section and move anything that’s in the later section I’ve decided to buy back into the main part of the cart. I also delete items I’ve bought elsewhere.
Sounds like you may have a problem with saving items from “Amazon Marketplace” sellers that sell between the time you save them and the time you actually buy the item. It makes sense that in a case like this, if you tell Amazon later that you want to buy the item, it would try to sell you a new copy rather than bump you to someone else’s used copy which my have a different description/condition than the one you wanted in the first place.
I placed two Marketplace orders just this week; no problems (except for Amazon’s dishonest shipping charge policy on Marketplace orders; I’ve been meaning to open a Pit thread about that).
No, I’ve dealt with that situation before. If you’ve got a used item in your shopping cart and it gets sold (or if its a new item that’s no longer available for that matter) Amazon will tell you it’s no longer available. Anyway, on the occasion when I was switched from a used to a new purchase it was a book that I had just placed in the cart minutes before and the used copy was still available.
I’m going to try deleting a bunch of items from my list (if I can). Maybe the volume of items in the cart is creating these problems.
I’ve had a couple issues with Amazon in the past, but as often as I order from them, some screw-ips are to be expected, I suppose.
Their customer service department should make it right. I will tell you, though, that you might have to repeat your complaint a few times before it gets through. The first time, they often send you one of those stupid form letter apologies. It might take a few tries before it’s resolved, and usually, by then, they offer you a gift certificate along with fixing the problem. All in all, I’d say they’re pretty good about fixing things, except for the frustrating nature of having to explain over and over.
I’ve tried the wish list route. It just leads to more moving of items around, which is what causes all the problems in the first place. Plus I believe a wish list is accessible to anyone who knows your account name or email address (am I wrong?).
I’ve already received my form letter back from Amazon indicating my complaint has been received and ignored.
I’m starting to think it might be worth the sales tax to go with Barnes & Noble.
In their defense, they’ve generally been pretty good about sorting out their mess when I’ve called customer support. (My girlfriend, reading over my shoulder, adds “Yeah, if you’re firm with them”. She initially had trouble getting them to eat the return shipping charge on an item she didn’t order).
Several times Amazon has shipped to the wrong address, including a nonsensical hybrid of a pair of addresses I had in their system. (More commonly, shipping to the billing address and ignoring the chosen shipping address, verified as having been selected correctly by checking the PDF I printed to after placing the orders). Sometimes items put on a waiting list either get shipped twice or don’t deploy at all once the item becomes available.